Just One Word: Plastic

Last year for the first time ever, Americans bought more stuff in stores with cards than with cash. Citigroup issues some 145 million cards worldwide, which bring in $19 billion in revenues - 25% of the total. Combined, cards will be 16% of the overall business for J.P Morgan and Bank One. Dell has created one of the most successful operations in the world by manufacturing and selling computers faster, cheaper, and more efficiently than anyone else. Imagine what a cash-only world would do to Dell's speed and efficiency. In September 1958, Joe Williams of Bank of America mailed out 60,000 credit cards to nearly every household in Fresno California. Residents racked up $59 million of purchases on the cards the second year. In the 1960s other banks joined Bank of America to form an association around the BankAmericard. Given the rampant errors, delinquency, and fraud, banks lost money on credit cards for years. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the card industry exploded.